An Unlikely Happening
by orangewolves
Summary: *Spoiler alert for book 12 of the ranger's apprentice!* Alyss's death had been a tragedy for all. She had burned in a fire that nobody had seen coming. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. It was just a completely unlikely happening. And here's how it all really went down. This is the story of how Alyss's death came to be, or is it? They had never found the body.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey you! Yeah, you! Have you read "The Royal Ranger" yet? 'Cause if you haven't, this contains spoilers! Don't say I didn't warn you...**

**In the last book of The Ranger's Apprentice they mentioned that Alyss died in a fire. It gave some details and such, but it didn't say the whole story. I wanted to write this fanfiction to narrate what I think happened, so I'm going to be adding a few details of my own. I hope you enjoy it!**

** If you already didn't notice for some bizarre reason, I don't own The Ranger's Apprentice or any of its characters, John Flanagan does.**

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><p>Alyss heaved a huge sigh of relief as she stretched out her sore muscles. She had been riding for almost eight hours today, and could now feel every minute of it. Stiffly, she sat down on a nearby log and tried to relax. These routinely trips to the Celtic court were starting to wear on her.<p>

The relationship between Araluen and Celtica has been somewhat tender ever since the attack on the Celtic mining industry. They, of course, blamed the Araluens for the attack, convinced that they were jealous of their mines. Mining has always had a big part in the Celtic ways.

Nevertheless, Celtica still needed the protection of Araluen, and so the defence agreement was made. It ensured that Araluen would protect Celtica, under the condition that it received 5% of Celtica's mining profit. The defence agreement needed to be renewed once every year to ensure that the alliance was still in place. To guarantee that the agreement renewal went smoothly, Princess Cassandra decided to send one of their best diplomats on the voyage, which of course meant Alyss.

She had left Castle Redmont with no more than three guards, proclaiming that she could fight for herself. Horace and Will had insisted that she should bring more guards along, but being a diplomat, she had easily won the argument. The party of four had taken two days to arrive at Celtica and were grudgingly let in. All Celtics believed in one saying: "O_ne man may be deceit, two can be conspiracy. three is the number I trust._" They were a bit deflated to let one more person in than customary, but they let it pass.

Alyss had arrived at the Celtic court three days ago, and the renewal had taken about half that time. Most years it would only take a few signatures and a couple hours to finish the process, but this year was different. The Celtics were having problems gaining a mining profit due to the large rain storm the previous month. It had completely flooded the mines and workers were unable to enter them for weeks. Now the Celtics were about a month short of goods, and were reluctant to give up 5% of what they did have. It had taken almost two days of negotiations and arguments for the agreement renewal to finally be signed.

Alyss, being as diplomatic and kind as she was, worked out a compromise which made both sides relatively happy. The Celtics would pay 3.5% of their normal income on time, and the other 1.5% would be due after another four months. It gave enough time for the Celtics to catch up, and it was soon enough that it wouldn't really matter to the Araluens. The Celtic representatives had thanked her for the postponement and signed the agreement.

The day after the renewal of the defence agreement, Alyss and her three guards left Celtica and headed back to Redmont. The delay that the Celtic court had caused left Alyss impatient to return back home, where she knew Will was waiting. With that thought in mind, she had ridden for hours on end, hoping that she could make up for the lost time in one bout. All she had to show for it now were a lot of sore muscles and four tired horses.

Alyss sighed, angry at herself for pushing the horses so hard. She got up and trudged up to her weary stead, smiling at it affectionately. It had been a gift from Will on their first wedding anniversary. He had known that Alyss had always wanted a horse of her own, so he bought her one. It was a sturdy caramel coloured horse, with four white socks and a snow-like mane and tail. On it's muzzle it had a dagger shaped marking, which had inevitably chosen it's name. _Dagger._

Alyss laughed quietly at the memory and stroked her horse. "Well, you're not very sharp now, are you Dagger?" She said playfully. "You know what you need? A long well deserved rest." Then, louder so that her guards could hear her, "We'll stop here for a couple hours. Settle down and take a breather."

One of her guards turned to look at her and frowned. "But it looks like it'll rain soon and it's only a few hours 'til dark. I suggest that we find somewhere to stay for the night."

Alyss glanced at the sky and nodded. "Very well, we'll look for a place to spend the night. Hand me a map and I'll try to look for one nearby," she said. She nodded thanks to the soldier who handed her the map and studied it carefully. She pointed to tiny dot. "There seems to be an inn not too far from here. We should be able to make it there by twilight."

The group of four wearily remounted their horses. Alyss patted Dagger apologetically and sighed. "Sorry boy, I'm afraid that your going to have to keep going for a little while longer. But don't worry, soon enough we'll arrive at the Wyvern Inn."

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><p><strong>Aaaaaannd that's the end of chapter 1, I hope you enjoyed it! I'll try to update again soon, but don't hold me to it.<strong>

**I only have a vague idea of how this story will go, so I'm open to any suggestions or comments. Tell me what you liked and didn't like, I welcome constructive criticism. Also, if I get any of my ranger's apprentice facts wrong, please let me know. I haven't read the books in a while and I'm bound to mess up something.**

**Don't forget to review! ****Bye for now!**


	2. Chapter 2

**WARNING: SPOILERS FOR BOOK 12 OF THE RANGER'S APPRENTICE SERIES. CONTINUE UPON YOUR OWN PERIL. **

**Hey everyone! I'm REALLY sorry it's taken me so long to update...it's been how long...? Three months? Four? I had a good case of writers block for a while and got sidetracked a little. Ok, sidetracked a lot. But I told you not to hold me to it. Yeah...so once again, sorry! **

**This chapter's all about Alyss and her brief stay at the Wyvern Inn. What she did there and what happened before Jory Ruhl came by and trashed the place. Enjoy!**

**Hm...I wonder if you've noticed or not, but I'm not John Flanagan. The Ranger's Apprentice belongs to him, not me.**

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><p>The Wyvern Inn was a big, warm, comfy looking place. It was both an Inn and a tavern, with two massive floors that could contain over 50 people with room to spare. It was an old building with dry but sturdy wood holding it up. It had dirt beaten vines that grew up around its sides so that it looked almost as if it had risen from the ground. The dusty building had seen many people in its time, from strangers to locals to people who come in every now and then for a nice drink. The Wyvern Inn had survived many decades of keeping both men and women entertained, and now the structure stood proudly with all it's years of service. Nobody would have ever guessed that that day would be the last they would ever see of it.<p>

Alyss and her guards barely made it through the front door before the rain started to come down. They had left their horses tethered outside in the stalls and she'd made sure that they had plenty to eat before she came inside. Alyss stood there for several seconds shaking off the few drop of water that had managed to land on her. She looked around and studied her surroundings carefully. There were men and woman laughing and drinking away the night, enjoying nice cool tankards of ale. It was the time of night where all the children were sent off to bed and the only ones left were the adults with a little extra money left over.

Alyss told her guards to mill about while she asked for a place to stay for the night. She approached the inn keeper who was standing behind the bar chatting to a nearby man. She looked about forty years old with deep tan a friendly face. She noticed Alyss standing there and quickly finished her conversation before turning to Alyss. "Anything I can help you with?" she asked.

Alyss nodded. "Yes. I was wondering if you happened to have a place for me and my group to stay for the night," she said motioning to her guards.

The lady studied them closely. "Soldiers, are they? And what would that make you? Daughter of a noble?"

Alyss shook her head. "I'm just a courier on a routinely trip." She decided not to mention that she was also the wife of the famous Will Treaty, one of the most well known heroes in all of Araluen. Courier Alyss suited her just fine.

"Alright," the inn keeper said, clearly satisfied. "I'll set you and your soldiers up with a night at the inn. 'Long as the lot of you don't go around causing trouble you'll be just fine." Alyss smiled back in thanks. The inn keeper looked over the group once more before turning back to Alyss. "There seems to be four of you, so I guess you'll be needing two rooms; a large room can keep all three of them and you can have a small one for yourself. They'll cost you five Royals. Diner's included. Unless you'd want just two medium rooms if one of these soldiers were..."

Alyss quickly shook her head. "No, no, it's nothing like that! They're just my guards! I have a husband, but he's not here with me. Two rooms will be perfect."

The inn keeper shrugged and put out her had. Alyss dug around in her bag and then deposited the five Royals into her hand. The lady reached down and pulled out a couple of keys from her desk. She handed both over to Alyss and said, "Very well. The rooms are on the top floor two doors down from the window." She looked past her at the door as another person walked through the door. "I suggest you enjoy the night down here though, it seems like the entertainment has arrived," she said, turning around to get back to work.

Alyss looked behind her shoulder to see what the inn keeper had been talking about. A man wearing colourful patterns and traveling clothes had just walked into the inn. He was holding the case of a musical instrument. Alyss smiled: It was jongleur. A jongleur was just what she needed to lift her spirit when she was away from home. They've always reminded her of Will and all the times that he had to pretend to be one, playing his lute. Or whatever it was called. She never really paid close attention to the name.

She hurried over to her men and told them the arrangement. Each of them grabbed their room key and hurried upstairs to freshen up before the show started. Alyss followed them and entered her own room. It was a decent sized room for one person and contained a bed, a small bedside table, and an area to store possessions. There was also an adjacent room connected to the main one that held the bathroom. She quickly entered it to wash off the grim and dirt from her travels.

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><p>Alyss was on her way down the stairs when she noticed how quite the main floor was. Immediately, alarm bells went off in her head. Taverns were never this quite, there would always be noise, laughter, and chatter no matter what the circumstances were.<p>

From where she was standing, she couldn't see anything in the room, and could only guess at what was happening. She went though the possibilities. It probably wasn't empty; it was too early for everyone to have gone home for the night and there would always be a few stragglers left anyway. If a fight had broken out, there should be yelling and arguing along with people exchanging bets on who would win. If someone had broken in, people would be whispering and comforting each other, and most likely the intruders would be yelling and threatening them to shut up. There would also be people, like her guards, who would try to challenge the criminals.

_Unless they were already taken care of, _Alyss thought suddenly. She shook her head angrily. She was getting ahead of herself. _There's probably a perfectly reasonable explanation for the silence, I shouldn't jump to conclusions, _the diplomat in her argued. But she still felt herself tense up as she softly tiptoed her way down the last few steps of the stairs. She winced at the slightest noise she made and wished that she had Will's ranger skills. Or better yet, that Will was here with her. Alyss held her breath as she slowly craned her neck to look around the corner...and was completely surprised by what she saw.

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><p><strong>And that's where I'm going to end off chapter 2. Sorry! I'm not sure if this is as much of a cliff hanger as I wanted it to be, but I tried my best. I'm really curious to know what you think that Alyss saw down there. Keep reading to find out!<strong>

**Once again, I'm really sorry it's taken me so much time to update, but I'm still going to refrain from promising anything. I will try to update as soon as possible though.**

** I really hope you've enjoyed this story so far and I'd really appreciate any reviews, suggestions or ideas. **

** 'Later everyone! **


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